ANECDOTES OF STUDENTS. HOW MENCIUS’S MOTHER INCITED HER SON TO STUDY. During the Chow dynasty (B.C. 1122–225), Mencius, at the age of three years, lost his father. His mother, whose name was Sin, was a woman of distinguished worth and virture. Mencius went to school, but soon threw aside his books and returned home. His mother was very much incensed at this course, and taking a knife, cut the web of cloth she was weaving, saying: “My son, your desisting from your studies is like my cutting this web.” Mencius, trembling with apprehension, returned to school and studied with diligence, nor did he intermit his literary pursuits until he became a _worthy_, next in rank to the sage Confucius. HOW A TIRED STUDENT WAS LED BACK TO HIS STUDIES. In the time of the Tang dynasty (620–906 A.D.) Lei Peh, while yet young, and before he had completed his studies left school and started for home. On the road he saw an old woman engaged in grinding away on an iron pestle. Peh inquired why she was thus grinding the pestle? She answered: “_I want to make a needle_.” He was surprised at her words, and influenced by them, returned to school, and studied with most assiduous application. He finally became a member of the Imperial college at the capital. THE LITTLE SAGE WHO HID FIRE TO LIGHT HIS LAMP. Probably between 479–501 A.D., lived Y’su Yung, who when he was only eight years old, was so fond of study, that his parents were afraid he would impair his eyes by his diligence. They therefore forbade him the use of books, but he would not obey them. Constantly he hid fire until his parents had retired to rest, when he would light his lamp and study. He took his clothes, and the coverlet of his bed and hung them up over the window of his room, lest the light escaping through it, should be seen by some one of the family. In this way his name became very widely celebrated as a scholar. At home and abroad the people called him “_the little sage_.” At the age of twelve he became a high officer of government, and was afterward promoted to the Superintendency of the Offering of Wine. AN EXAMPLE OF A STUDIOUS ANCESTOR. Fan Shun Jin, in the Sung dynasty, day and night was diligent in study. He was in the habit of placing his lamp within the curtains of his bed, and thus studying till past midnight. Afterward, he became a very distinguished officer. His wife preserved the curtain, which, at the top, had become black by the soot. Occasionally she would bring it forth, and show it to her children and grandchildren, saying, “_Your father and grandfather, when he was a boy, was very studious. Here are the marks of the smoke of his lamp._” THE STUDENT WITH A ROUND STICK FOR A PILLOW.